Bronx Official Is Nominated For Assembly

By JONATHAN P. HICKS

Published: February 4, 2003

A month ago, when Gloria Davis resigned from her seat in the State Assembly and pleaded guilty to bribery charges, Democratic officials in the Bronx widely assumed that the party would nominate one of the assemblywoman's chief aides, Claudia Nisbett, to take her place.

But in the weeks that followed, party leaders shifted from their plans to support Ms. Nisbett, who is also a Democratic district leader. Over the weekend, a committee of Democratic officials voted instead to nominate Michael Benjamin, who is the deputy chief clerk of the Board of Elections in the Bronx. Mr. Benjamin's name will appear on the ballot in the special election on Feb. 25.

Mr. Benjamin, 44, said that he had been approached immediately after Ms. Davis's resignation by several political and community leaders who said that they considered Ms. Nisbett too closely linked with Ms. Davis.

''There were people in the community and in the party who were afraid that Mr. Nisbett would be tarred in the press by Gloria Davis's mud,'' Mr. Benjamin said. ''And they realized that because of the redistricting last year, my home had been redrawn into that district.''

Mr. Benjamin has long been involved in Democratic Party politics and previously served as an aide to Assemblywoman Aurelia Greene and to the Bronx borough president, Adolfo Carrión Jr., when Mr. Carrión served in the City Council. In 2001, Mr. Benjamin was the candidate backed by the Democratic Party organization in the Bronx in a City Council race. He lost the Democratic nomination to Helen Diane Foster.

As a Democratic district leader, Ms. Nisbett would have had an advantage because of the control such leaders have over the Democratic County Committee, which nominates candidates for vacancies.

But Mr. Benjamin, who has also served as the party's parliamentarian, took advantage of a provision in the party's bylaws that allows additional members to be added to the county committee after an election year in which a Democratic candidate for governor gets a large vote within the Assembly district. As a result, Mr. Benjamin was able to win the committee's support on Saturday with the help of new members.

The Working Family Parties, which has close ties to the Democratic Party in the Bronx, also had strong reservations about Ms. Nisbett and gave its line to Mr. Benjamin last week, as did the Republican Party.

Eric Stevenson will be on the Independence Party line.

Receiving the Democratic nomination in this highly Democratic district, which lies in the southwestern portion of the Bronx, is tantamount to winning the general election.

Ms. Nisbett said she was disappointed that Mr. Benjamin had won by using fine print in the bylaws. But she added that she still planned to run for the Assembly seat as an independent candidate. She said was uninvolved in any transgressions committed by Ms. Davis.